The Story Behind the Sweetest Moment of New York Fashion Week

This season Oscar de la Renta found itself in the unusual position of being without an official creative director or lead designer. Peter Copping, who had replaced Oscar de la Renta following his passing in October 2014, stepped down in July. Copping's successors, Monse designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia (who both spent years working at Oscar de la Renta before launching their own brand) will show their fist collection, fall 2017, in February.

Of course, the storied New York brand was never designer-less. The spring/summer 2017 collection was created by a talented design studio and atelier. The design studio is comprised of 19 people and the atelier has 30. And in a touching scene during the finale of the de la Renta runway show, it was the design studio who came out, en masse, to take a bow, while the atelier looked on, smiling, from a balcony above.

Here, an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how the collection came together.

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